


Specimen

by Aithilin



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Childhood, Episode Prompto Spoilers, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-12
Updated: 2017-07-12
Packaged: 2018-12-01 06:15:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11480370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aithilin/pseuds/Aithilin
Summary: Regis had known about the mission to infiltrate Niflheim, but he had no idea what weapon Cor would be bringing back to study.





	Specimen

Regis remembered the day the child was brought into Insomnia. He remembered the reports that had crossed his desk— the soldiers lost under Cor’s command, the troubling reports of the bases, the facilities in the Niflheim tundras and mountains, the creatures lurking in containment and the sudden aggression of the beasts. He remembered the neat, precise report; the clear words chosen with military eloquence.

He remembered the way the revelation chilled his soul. 

He remembered leaving the report on his desk as the shock sank in, as the horror of such callous disregard for life numbed him to the words that followed. He remembered going to the nursery where his son slept under the watch of a nurse. 

He had watched Noctis sleep then, smiled at the small life he had created with a wife he still missed more and more each day. He picked up his child, his son, and wondered how anyone could see such a small, delicate being and think “weapon”. 

Specimen was the term used in the report. As if it wasn't a human lying in a sterile crib just blocks away in a Lucian hospital, under the watch of far more nurses and doctors than his own small prince. As if the lights and the noise of machines and people wouldn't terrify such a small creature. Such an infant. 

He wondered if he could ever be so desperate. If he could have ever sanctioned something so ghastly. When he pressed a soft kiss to his son’s forehead in apology for waking him; when he felt that small warmth in his arms, Regis knew that he could never sink so low as to manufacture and corrupt life for a war.

He had gone to see the ’specimen’ only once since it was brought to Insomnia. He watched as Cor’s jaw clenched, as his friend’s anger was barely contained as the small creature cried for comfort as blood was drawn, as machines hummed and clicked around it, as the only human contact it had was through gloves and gear and no skin. 

“What do we do, your majesty?”

Cor had enough of the wailing, of the infant’s cries. Despite the arguments presented by nurses and doctors in attendance, the Marshal lifted the child from the plastic crib and quieted the cries with soft noises and a gentle rocking.

“Will they come looking for him?”

Regis offered a small smile to the infant as intense blue eyes blinked up at him. 

“Likely, if they know where he is.”

“Then I can't raise him in the Citadel… it would be too obvious a target for them. Noctis—”

“Will always be protected,” Cor said, catching the small hand reaching for the decorations on his jacket. “I'll find a family for him. He’ll be raised properly.”

“Don't give me the details. I don't want it knowledge to be shared in the Citadel.”

He didn't want to think about children being trained as weapons, or infants growing up wailing for love that will never come. He didn't want to think that he had expected to see reports of weapons and instruments of death, and had instead received a child.

“Yes, your majesty.”

It was years later that he saw the boy again. He knew those eyes, that smile, instantly. Just as he knew his own son. Noctis was sixteen, and his friend had come to stay the weekend. 

The young man was terrified, Regis knew. There were guards and guns and the imposing stone walls of the heart of a kingdom. He watched the boy fidget as Cor met with him, greeted him, in the hallways. He watched as Noctis dragged his friend off to the relative safety and quiet of his rooms. He almost laughed at the look of pure terror as he called to get his own child’s attention. 

“Aren't you going to introduce your friend, Noctis?”

The boy’s eyes widened and he froze in place, even as Noct prodded him forward and smiled. “Dad, this is Prompto Argentum. He's staying the weekend.”


End file.
